There are many different fire truck designs currently on the market. Fire trucks are typically not a mass-produced item, but instead, many are individually designed and built. Fire trucks carry a significant amount of fire fighting equipment, including fluid tanks, pumps, ladders, aerial extenders, fire extinguishers, and various rescue and medical equipment. However, the largest volume of equipment carried by a typical fire truck is the fire hoses themselves.
Typically, fire hoses are loaded and carried in storage locations on the top or the back of the fire truck. As such, the fire hose is typically placed in a storage structure or bed that is substantially elevated above the ground. The biggest problem with this common design is that it makes it both difficult to unload the fire hoses before fighting the fire, and also difficult (and time consuming) to reload the fire hoses on the fire truck after the fire. This design approach is both ergonomically undesirable and quite time consuming. Moreover, when fire hoses are carried or accessed on the top of the fire truck, the placement of the fire hoses makes it difficult to also mount aerial extenders or ladders onto the top of the fire truck.
Solutions to this problem have been attempted, but they each have their own limitations.
For example, in one system patented by Hunke in U.S. Pat. No. 6,006,841, a retractable hose container is used. In this system, the hose container is motorized to extend straight out of the back of the fire truck (such that the fire fighters can grab the fire hoses at an appropriate level) after the moveable hose carrier has been fully deployed. A disadvantage of this system is that the deployment of the hose carrier dramatically increases the overall length of the fire truck (to almost double its normal length). Another disadvantage of this system occurs when reloading the hoses into the fire truck. Specifically, Hunke envisions the fire truck being driven backwards with the fire fighters working behind the truck reloading the fire hose. The firefighters behind the truck are not visible to the truck driver.
Another system patented by Trinker et. al. in U.S. Pat. No. 7,331,586 involves a hose storage structure that slides on an inclined plane between a lowered position (at which it protrudes from the back end of the fire truck) and an upper position (at which it basically rests on top of the fire truck). A first disadvantage of the Trinker et. al. system is that it is quite mechanically complex and cumbersome to operate. A second disadvantage of the Trinker et. al. system is that it uses up potential equipment storage space on both the back end and the top of the fire truck.
What is instead desired is a system which carries fire hoses in an out of the way location on a fire truck, yet presents these fire hoses for unloading (and for re-loading) at a height that is convenient for the firefighters to handle and operate. It is not desirable to have fire fighter reach up too high or bend down too low when handling fire hoses (which are quite heavy). Moreover, it is desirable that the system for carrying the fire hoses does not interfere with the capacity of the fire truck to carry additional fire fighting equipment. Thus, the desired fire hose handling system should not take up excessive space on or in the fire truck. Moreover, it is desirable that the system for carrying fire hoses does not involve a bulky extension to the fire truck itself, and therefore does not limit the maneuverability of the fire truck in tight situations.